Wind farm guidelines put on hold
Up to $150,000 of ratepayers’ money will be spent developing a policy for wind farm development in Palmerston North.
But the policy won’t be finalised until a board of inquiry rules on Mighty River Power’s (MRP) proposed Turitea Wind Farm.
Yesterday, the Palmerston North City Council’s planning and policy committee agreed to wait until after the board of inquiry process to finalise guidelines, which would be adopted into the district plan.
Senior policy planner David Murphy said it was pointless creating a policy until that decision had been made, because MRP’s proposal covered the last section of the Tararua Ranges within Palmerston North boundaries without a consented wind farm.
If the wind farm was turned down, the council could create a policy covering new wind farm projects.
But, if it was approved, all the space would be used up, so the policy would only have to cover expansion of existing wind farms, Mr Murphy said.
“The outcome of that [decision] will be fundamental to the approach taken for the policy.”
He estimated the cost of the policy development to be between $100,000 and $150,000.
That was on top of $475,000 already being spent on the council’s submission to the Turitea Wind Farm hearing.
Mr Murphy said much of the work for the Turitea submission would be useful in the policy development. Because it was a district plan policy it had to go through lengthy consultation steps, leading to the extra cost.
Councillors were also asked to endorse recommendations from a group of “technical experts”, which said the current district plan should be maintained, with wind farms added as a specific activity with guidelines.
But the word “endorse” was changed to “note” after some councillors questioned whether the council should be publicly stating a position for or against wind farms.
Michael Feyen, who last year set the policy development in motion with a successful notice of motion, said he believed wind farms should become a prohibited activity.
“What we have come to is a position where we can lose our whole environment to appease people who haven’t looked after theirs.”
Along with Peter Wheeler, Mr Feyen also voted against waiting until after the board of inquiry to finalise the policy.
The next step in the process will be a landscape assessment, to look at the value of the Tararua Ranges.
That was to be done as part of stage two of a landscape study, but councillors agreed the ranges assessment would be done first.
The committee’s recommendations will be considered by the full council later this month.
The board of inquiry hearings will begin on July 6.
The Turitea Wind Farm proposal was sent to a board of inquiry after it was called-in by Environment Minister Nick Smith.
7 April 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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